Alopecia Areata Treatments

What is Alopecia Areata?

Alopecia Areata is known to be a common autoimmune disorder that commonly results in unpredictable hair loss. It can affect anyone regardless of age and gender. It is a disease that causes hair to fall out in small patches. Alopecia areata rarely affects total hair loss, though it can prevent hair from growing back. The condition is not life threatening, does not cause any type of pain or illness, and hair loss can stop just as suddenly as it started. It may even grow back on its own without any medical intervention. Hair loss and regrowth varies from person to person.

In the majority of cases, hair falls out in the form of small patches around the size of a quarter. For most people, the hair loss is nothing more than a few patches; however in some of the cases it can be more dangerous. Sometimes it can lead to the complete loss of hair on the scalp is known as alopecia totalis or in dangerous cases the entire body called as alopecia universalis.

Alopecia areata is considered to be an autoimmune disease, where the immune system incorrectly classifies the body’s own cells instead of harmful foreign invaders. In the case of alopecia areata, our immune system assaults the hair follicles which lead to hair loss.

Causes of Alopecia Areata:

The condition occurs when the white blood cells spasm the cells in hair follicles, which causes them to shrink and dramatically slow down hair production. It is unidentified exactly what causes the body’s immune system to object hair follicles in this way.

While scientists are not sure why these types of changes occur, it seems that genetics are involved as alopecia areata is more likely to occur in a person who has a nearby family member with the same disease. One in five people with the disease has a family member who has also established alopecia areata.

Other investigations have found that many people with a family history of alopecia areata also have a individual or family history of other autoimmune disorders, such as atopy.
Despite what many people say, there is very little systematic indication to support the view that alopecia areata is caused by stress. Extreme cases of stress could possibly generate alopecia areata, but most recent research points toward a genetic cause.

Symptoms of Alopecia Areata:

The most conspicuous indication of alopecia areata is patchy hair loss. Coin-sized patches of hair begin to fall out, mostly from the scalp. Any position of hair growth may be affected, however, including the beard and eyelashes.

The loss of hair can be unanticipated, emerging in just a few days. The hair follicles are not destroyed and so hair can re-grow if the swelling of the follicles diminishes. People who experience just a few patches of hair loss often have a impulsive full retrieval without any form of treatment.

About 30% of individuals who develop alopecia areata find that their disorder either becomes wider or that they experience continuous cycles of hair loss and regrowth.

Alopecia areata can also distress the fingernails and toenails, and occasionally these changes are the first sign that alopecia areata is emerging. There are a number of small modifications that can occur to nails:

• White spots and lines can appear
• Nails can become thin and split.
• Nails can become rough
• Nails can lose their shine
• Pinpoint dents can appear

Additional clinical symbols comprise exclamation-mark hairs, where a few short hairs that get narrower at their bottom grow in or about the edges of bald spots, corpse hairs, hairs broken before reach the skin surface, and the regrowth of white hair in areas affected by hair loss.

Treatments of Alopecia Areata:

Currently there is no cure for alopecia areata, but we Amaria Pharmacy had brought out some treatments that might help speed up the growth of hair afterward.